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Should Colleges Help Kids Find Their Passions, Not Just Jobs?

It happens every year. Young people get degrees in certain fields and at some point, begin working in positions associated with their studies.

However, many of these young people eventually get burned out on the jobs they thought they wanted in college. They might even get a job at another company in the same field after a less than enjoyable experience as an employee at their previous workplace.

Some people even change the direction of their career altogether years after they find out that they may have gotten a degree in the wrong field. The experiences at the different firms may be distinct, but ultimately, the job is still the same. Angel B. Perez, a professor at Trinity College in Harford, Connecticut talked about this in a very recent column, which was published by the Washington Post.

Perez’s column was titled It’s Not Just About Jobs; Colleges Must Help Students Find Their Passions. In his Friday (March 10th) commentary, Perez talked about a recent lecture he gave to some students at Trinity College who were attending a course of his on higher education in America.

“During a recent lecture in my Trinity College course on American higher education, I asked my students, ‘Why do you go to college?’ Most of them answered, in various forms, ‘To get a job,'” Perez wrote.

“Not one [student] mentioned going to college to explore their purpose or to embark on a meaningful life,” he continued.

It’s certainly true that many Americans are working a job for the purpose of survival; they aren’t genuinely forging a passionate and enjoyable path toward success in their life. The concept of a job is clearly defined. A job is a task or series of tasks one assumes to help the framework of a business or corporation run its day-to-day operations.

Colleges offer degrees to people so they can have the basic qualifications needed to fill entry-level or line management positions. However, Perez argues that colleges should take it a step further by getting students engaged in learning and exploring their true passions.

“The truth is, today’s young people already expect to [be taught how to find their passion]. Colleges and universities across the country must help our students meet that expectation. For the sake of our students and the future of our country, we must reinvent ourselves to help students explore meaning and purpose,” Perez added.